Kindred's Hope
by JimVan
Summary: The continued story of Trung Anh and his search for destiny. Set after Bloodlines. Spoiler warning.
1. The Power Vacuum

Disclaimer: I don't own Vampire: The Masquerade: Bloodlines or any of the World of Darkness. They are the legal property of Troika and White Wolf Studios. If you pay enough attention to the disclaimer to read this far, then you must be a fledgling ficcie.

Van: My first VTM fic. I don't know too much about the World of Darkness, so this is a step into the shadows (pun fully intended). Feel free to drop a review afterwards if you like, and I hope you enjoy it.

Chinh: I'm a Malkavian!

* * *

Kindred's Hope

Chapter 1: The Power Vacuum

_And when Caine, weeping bitterly, fled the land of Eden, he traveled eastwards towards the unknown reaches of Nod, and it was there, in that black forest, that he discovered Lilith, the fallen widow. Her task for redemption was to bring Caine back to the light. Caine however, was impervious to Lilith's tongue, and he smote her down in his anger and left the forest for the East. _

– Excerpt from the Book of Nod

_Although the 13 known bloodlines of the Kindred have changed and their alliances and enmities have shifted over the centuries, it has always seemed that there have been two warring main factions, with one led by the Ventrue and the other by the Tzimisce. Many Kindred believe this dates back to the original Antediluvian fathers themselves._

_- _Excerpt from introduction of the Lora Vitae Camarilla

The full moon shone down on the city from above, her rays illuminating the streets with a pale white light that threw the open city into view, but left in shade the secret and often terrible events of the backstreets.

Los Angeles...a city of intrigue and never-ending conflict amongst all beings, was a dangerous place at night, for not only humans with a misplaced sense of morality stalked in the darkness, but beings far worse and much more terrible.

A secret to most people they were, but not to all. Two men in hooded trenchcoats stood beneath the cathedral, the glow from their lit cigarettes the only indication of their presence. One of them spoke, his voice in a whisper.

"Are you sure that we should continue this hunt, Mattingly? If that one is the one responsible for that explosion downtown, shouldn't we get help dealing with it? It is our work to hunt down and eradicate these abominations, but surely it would be folly to attempt to destroy one so powerful on our own!"

The other one glared at him and spoke. "We are protected by the light, Tyler. No matter how powerful this cursed fiend may be, we are in the right, the cause of faith and good, and that alone will guarantee our victory. I don't see why you are so worried. Think of the praise and favor that Father Barwinek will give us upon our return with the thing dead. We can do this. Come now."

"But…"

"No buts, Tyler. This is our sacred and ancient duty, and we will not shy from it just for the sake of satisfying your cowardice. We are hunters. Dare you defy such a duty! Come! We hunt!"

The one named Mattingly stalked off into the night, and, meekly, the younger one named Tyler followed him.

But they were unaware of a presence above. Every word they had said, and every secret they spilled, had been heard by the very one they sought.

"Infernal deluded hunters…" I snarled, curling back my lips over my slight fangs.

Did they really think they would be able to track me down? I had beaten many like them before with little effort and even less trouble, and it seemed that their foolhardiness in hunting me alone would make them easy enough to pick off anytime I so wished. If I was ever in the mood to do so, that is…

The younger one, Tyler, had been right. If only he had shown a little backbone he might have been able to get at least some small chance to save himself if he and his kind ever did run into me.

But I could not let that foolhardy pair simply run off into the night. Hunters were human, fair enough, but they were fairly conspicuous, and with more and more humans becoming aware of my kind by the night with the collapse of our cover, I would have to be rid of them before they could cause any more damage.

Gathering my strength, I vaulted off the top of the gargoyle statue I had been sitting on. It was a cold and blustery night, and the wind whipped my long leather jacket and ponytail about me in my leap. I landed neatly on the next rooftop and crouched to distribute the force of the landing throughout my body and make as little noise as possible.

I gazed down at the alley they had vanished into and began to move across the rooftops to follow them.

They turned into the next alley to come round to the main road, and I knew I only had a few moments before they would be in plain view and so out of my reach. Much as I disliked killing, I knew I would not be able to evade these fanatics forever. It had to be done. Besides, these hunters not only killed those like myself, but many of their own kind who were even suspected of involvement.

And I made no attempt to justify my killing when it happened, yet these hunters concealed their own bloodlust beneath excuses of righteousness. They had to be stopped.

I tensed myself and leapt from the roof, landing silently behind Tyler. He might have sensed me only a split-second before, but he died without even a scream as I smashed my lower palms down into his shoulders, crushing his collarbones and lacerating the blood vessels and nerves beneath. Mattingly whirled around and saw me, but with the boost of Celerity I was upon him before he could even draw the blade sheathed beneath his coat.

My front-kicking boot caught him solidly on the breastbone and I could hear the sickening crack of his ribs breaking beneath the pressure. He flew backwards and crashed onto the ground.

He choked and coughed up blood from his punctured organs, but he was not dead…yet. I approached him silently and stood over him. He gazed up at me, his eyes filled with pain and hate, and he managed to spit "Curse you, vampire!" Then his eyes glazed over and he fell back onto the road with a sigh.

I shook my head and sighed to myself. It was terrible to see one fade slowly out of life right before my eyes like that. I hated it, and I hated killing. Was this truly the way my unhappy kind would be forced to live forever? Was this what the father of us all had wanted when he created the first of us? When he created the…

Kindred?

* * *

Sensing the sun on the move, I departed the scene, leaving the two bodies behind. I knew they would be found, but no policeman would ever guess it was the work of a vampire. The fatal injuries I had inflicted on them could very well have been performed by any strong human martial artist, not just a vampiric one.

I began the long trek back to my haven, going, as I preferred, across the rooftops so I could contemplate my thoughts with the open sky and the bright stars for company.

I cursed myself again briefly at all the events that had led that pair, and probably all of their kind and at least half of my own, to seek my blood in these dark nights.

It had only been a few months, but it already felt like years since…

I had been sired.

It had been a bad day and night. It had been the day that grad school had released the results, and I had failed to pass my finals. My girlfriend, Samantha, and I had an almighty argument because of that, and I was angry and upset.

In my depression, I had gone out to a nightclub and sat at the bar next to this young woman…or at least I believed that was what she was at the time. I was deep into my drinks, not really interested in talking, despite the girl's constant attempts at conversation. Undeterred by my mere grunts, she pressed on until I finally let her snuggle up to me just to shut her up.

The next thing I knew, she was leading me out the front by the hand and into this seedy motel next door. By that time, I was so inebriated by drinking that I could barely have managed to put up a fight, no matter how little I cared for what I thought she was implying. Fighting, as it turned out, would've been useless anyway.

She tackled me onto the bed and spoke those chilling words that I would remember for the rest of my existence.

"_I want to show you something…"_

Then there was this terrible stab of pain in my neck, the scream rising from my throat, and then a crashing wave of what can only be described as ecstasy as that monster sated herself upon me.

I blacked out. And it was a while before I awoke at the feeling of something slipping down my throat. I sat up, and there she was, sitting in a chair across the room and smiling at me. I felt a terrible wrench inside of me at that moment, and a stab in my lower lip as a pair of fangs sprouted from my canines.

As I felt them, that was when it dawned on me what had happened, but it would be a while before I was ready to accept it, if indeed I ever did at all…

She opened her mouth to speak, but at that moment, the Camarilla, the Kindred vampire faction enforcing 'law and order' burst into the room and staked her and myself.

When I awoke, I found myself staring into the face of Sebastian LaCroix, the vampire 'prince' of the Camarilla, in a downtown theatre with my sire and I captive before an audience of high-ranking Kindred. LaCroix stated some Camarilla law mumbo-jumbo that I can barely remember before he ordered his enormous henchman, the 'Sheriff' to decapitate my sire.

As she dissolved, I might've had the feeling that I was to follow if I had not still been dumbstruck and numb with surprise at all that was unfolding before my eyes so quickly. It did seem that the prince intended to kill me also at first, had it not been for the outburst of Nines Rodriguez, the Anarch leader, at that point. As possibly the most powerful vampire in LA next to LaCroix, his anger at the injustice of my execution was enough to bring out the objection of the other Kindred in the audience, and change LaCroix's mind for fear of rebellion. Indeed, Rodriguez's faction, as I soon found out, were passionate about their freedom and had no interest in Camarilla law.

After that, I was allowed to leave unharmed. But LaCroix made it clear that I worked for him from then on, and he assigned me to a little beachside backwater called Santa Monica, where I assumed I was to be left and forgotten, if not destroyed.

As I knew nothing of how to live as a Kindred, or of their Masquerade to live amongst humans, LaCroix would probably have gotten his wish if I had not been instructed that night by an eccentric Kindred named Jack, who followed me.

It was then that I had my first encounter with the Sabbat, the cult of vampires that reject all humanity and seek to destroy all Kindred but themselves. It was then I learned the difference and the importance that came with remembering myself and containing the evil instinct within myself and all Kindred, the Beast. If I failed, I would become like those wretched, murdering Sabbat, and I vowed never to let that happen.

I've managed to keep my vow…so far.

Shortly after that, with the help of some other Kindred, I destroyed a Sabbat stronghold in Santa Monica that bought me a return to downtown LA and LaCroix's presence. He sent me to retrieve an ancient sarcophagus that he believed contained a sleeping Kindred elder from human hands. Despite my protests to the fact that this task was better suited to a Brujah or Gangrel clan Kindred than to a Toreador like me, I was eventually successful in this task, but during my search for the sarcophagus I encountered a strange race of non-Kindred vampire-like creatures from the lands of Asia, known as the Kuei-jin.

The leader of these Kuei-jin, Ming Xiao, had eventually revealed to me LaCroix's dealings with her to frame Nines Rodriguez for the murder of an elder vampire and attempt to destroy him and his Anarchs in exchange for her possession of the sarcophagus. My previous intervention and murder in self-defense of two of her warriors to claim the sarcophagus for him was enough to convince her to break her alliance with LaCroix and reveal to me what had happened. Why? I still cannot be sure.

The news that LaCroix had dealings with the natural enemy of all Kindred, both Camarilla and Anarch, would have been his immediate downfall as prince, and quite possibly have meant his execution. So when I rather foolishly discussed this with him, he made up his mind in the midst of his denials to do away with me, as I was by then dangerous to him. As I owed Rodriguez a favor, I managed to persuade LaCroix to pardon him in exchange for my silence. He agreed and sent me to offer this, and an alliance against the Kuei-jin, to the Anarch leader.

I obeyed, but I soon found LaCroix was double the backstabber I had ever expected. He, and Ming Xiao as I later discovered, had conspired to remove me and Rodriguez at our meeting by attracting werewolves to the scent of our blood. Rodriguez and I were separated in the following struggle, and I barely escaped with my life. But then LaCroix pinned the blame for Rodriguez's supposed death on me and ordered a blood hunt, and soon, almost every Kindred in LA was out to kill me.

Jack, who was and is perhaps the only vampire I can truly trust, came to my aid again and hid me away until I was strong enough to follow my path of justice. He directed me to a strange driver who provided guidance in my course from there. The mysterious and odd Kindred, he must have been an Elder or something - no other Kindred possessed that much insight, had made me come to realize that from then on, the only path I could possibly walk was my own, free from the chains of any faction, vampire or otherwise. The Jyhad was a bad joke, a bloodline hatred born from the cursed Beast within us all, and even Rodriguez had followed along with it. But I would never follow the Jyhad again…or so I hoped at the time.

I disliked the idea of confronting Ming Xiao at first, but when I learned that she had been playing me for a fool all along and possessed the stone key needed to open the sarcophagus, I broke into the Kuei-jin stronghold in Chinatown and fought my way down to meet her face-to-face. As I expected, she would not back down without a fight…

I still have no idea how I managed to overcome the she-demon's immense power, but at the end of our struggle, Ming Xiao broke into steaming pieces and I left with the sarcophagus key. I always felt regret. Even though Ming Xiao had betrayed me, we had been somewhat friendly at one time.

I had the key, but no intention of opening the sarcophagus. As by then, due to the advice of the only other Kindred vigilante I had come to trust…somewhat, the Gangrel 'historian' Beckett, I did not believe it contained the doomsday ancient everyone was so worried about.

I then penetrated into Venture tower, the haven of LaCroix, to gain my revenge and clear my name. Not without resistance, I found him, destroyed his Sheriff, and slashed him in rage. Even though I had mortally wounded him, he was stricken and mad with greed for the supposed 'power' within the sarcophagus in his office. I threw up my arms in disgust and tossed the key at his feet before leaving, sated in the belief that he was doomed no matter which path he took.

Sure enough, on my way down out of the tower, his penthouse level exploded, taking him along with it. A suicide perhaps? It appeared then that I would never know.

Though I was somewhat glad to see Nines Rodriguez, wounded, but still standing, gazing up at the tower from the street outside, I was no longer interested in fighting for him or any faction. I pushed past him even as he offered me joint leadership of the Anarchs and strode off and out of the world of Kindred politics, I hoped, forever.

My elation was short-lived, as even all that I had done could not keep the sun from rising. I now had no haven, and for Jack and Beckett I had no idea where to look, and so, I had to call in an old favor.

The Toreador 'dancer' named Velvet Velour, or VV to her friends, was the only remaining friend I had who was in deep touch with her humanity and sense of compassion enough to shelter me (despite the annoying string of bad poetry she was bound to reveal to me). And so I went to her smoking Hollywood Elysium, the Vesuvius nightclub. The club was closed, for it was very early in the morning, just before sunrise, and I hoped she was still inside and willing to listen to my explanations.

As it turned out, VV needed no encouragement at all to believe I was innocent. I had barely taken two steps into her club before she leapt onto my back, hugging me hard and laughing with relief. I tried to explain things, but she hushed me, placing a finger to my lips, and ushered me upstairs into her private room before the sunrise, at which we both promptly passed into sleep on the couch.

After the sunset, we awoke, and VV listened to my tale, her eyes widening at the fate of LaCroix. She had never been particularly fond of him, I knew, but she needed a push to see killing as the answer to anything, like most Toreador, myself included.

"So what will you do now, Anh?" she asked me in wonderment.

It had been a hard question to answer. With Rodriguez alive, it was only a matter of time until LaCroix's scheme was exposed and I was proved innocent, but there was still no telling what repercussions would follow my killing of the Camarilla prince and I didn't know what to expect from the handful of Kuei-jin remaining in LA either. Even worse was the fact that my battle with the Sheriff on the top of Venture tower would once and for all have thwarted the Masquerade in LA. Before the end of the week, every single kine in town would be aware of the supernatural beings in their midst and mass panic would grip the population.

One thing was certain, I would have to go underground for the time being. Perhaps literally as well as figuratively. I had no need or desire to follow any particular leader now, except myself, but it was inevitable that the Camarilla, and perhaps the Anarchs, would eventually try to claim me as theirs, for use or for execution.

I was, by now, tired of this existence. Vampiric unlife was blood, just blood, and a never-ending war. I believed that there was a reason the Kindred existed, and a role they had to fulfill in the world, but I knew it not, and nor did any Kindred I had ever met.

There was only one other who sought this mystery out, and now, out of curiosity more than anything else, it seemed I wanted then to seek the truth. The truth about the Kindred, what we were, and why we were created. And the place to start, or rather the person to start with, was probably miles away by now.

* * *

Beckett.

If anyone knew where to start the search for the vampire's purpose, he would.

And it was this night, now, when I would begin my search.

Beckett had left LA, it seemed. There was only one Kindred I could think of who might know where he had gone, and luckily enough, that Kindred was not too far from my new haven…

As I stepped out of the alley, a familiar voice broke my thoughts.

"Where to?"

That deep voice resonated through my head and filled my throat with a pleasant chuckle.

"Ah…Jack's mysterious driver. I was wondering if I would ever see you again…" I said as I saw him leaning on his cab window. His stoic, sharp-featured expression never changed in all the time I saw his face.

"I have only ever seen few of Caine's Children succeed in casting off Jyhad…" he said quietly. "…and still fewer who managed to survive for long afterwards. It might be interesting to see where your path will lead from here, vampire…"

I chuckled again and strode over to the back seat door of his cab. "And I guess I'll probably be killed on the way on this impossible road, but I'm going to do it anyway."

"Courage…a misguided label for bravado. The folly of all Kindred…" I swore I could hear the trace of a smile in his voice as I jumped in the back seat and he started the engine.

"To the Hollywood graveyard…" I said. "I've got some rats to chase down…"

"As you wish…" he said, and the old cab roared off down the street.

* * *

Van: And that's that. Update in a short while I hope. Please read and review. Nurse! Gin and tonic please!

Chinh: I'm a Malkavian!

Van: Yes, yes! We know!


	2. Guides, Hides, and Endangered Lives

Disclaimer: I don't own Vampire: The Masquerade or The Requiem. They are the property of World of Darkness. Likewise, I don't own Bloodlines except on a small set of CD-ROMs. I do own one large frosted mug of watermelon juice that I'm going to chug down as I write this story about drinking blood. How's that for irony?

Author: Next update. Trung Anh descends to meet old friends to check for Beckett's trail. And guess what? They want another favor. And the Camarilla and the Anarchs have come to a decision…

* * *

Kindred's Hope

Chapter 2: Guides, Hides, and Endangered Lives

_The practice of Kindred draining the blood of other Kindred and stealing their power is the foulest crime Kindred may commit by Camarilla law. However the consumption of some, or even all, of another's blood with their consent is not considered to be diablerie. Indeed, some dissatisfied elders, including the Antediluvian Malkav himself, have been rumored to embrace their final death by ordering their childer to drain them dry and so pass their 'inheritance' to them. Today, however, this does not happen often, and some diablerists have tried to protest innocence by claiming they had the consent of those they drained. _– Excerpt from the Lora Vitae Camarilla

_The bodies of Kindred are dead. Their only ecstasy comes from feeding. And they reproduce by siring. Thus, Kindred no longer have any mating drive and they are both physically and mentally incapable of mating. Many younger Kindred still retain the concept of romance and sensuality, but from a more superficial level, and their idea of showing their love is by taking beloveds as ghouls or childer. In the case of loving other Kindred, love is shown by sharing their blood with them to build a bond. _– Conclusion from the Species X Analysis

* * *

A lot of people these days often hope that their driver would forget to turn on his meter so they could scramble out without paying a cent, but it was odd that this one appeared to have forgotten his meter every single time I went with him.

I offered him a fifty as we arrived at the graveyard gates, extending my hand from the back seat over his shoulder, but he waved it away wordlessly and motioned for me to get out.

"Well, er, thank you." I said lamely as I opened the door and stepped out of the cab. He ignored me and simply sat there, staring into space ahead of him.

A strange one, I mused to myself. What kind of Kindred elder carted younger fledglings around in a cab without an explanation or accepting any kind of payment?

Shrugging, I dismissed the thought. This driver was useful, and he seemed trustworthy enough. I turned towards the rusted, dented gates to the Hollywood graveyard. The large and sinister iron demon's face still lay in a pattern on the top. Strangely fitting considering what rested behind the gate in this simple graveyard. During my brief period of service to LaCroix, I had entered here before in my search for the sarcophagus, and somehow wound up having to help a ghoul by the name of Romero blow the heads off a legion of zombies that suddenly rose from the ground...well, it was either that or go make an idiot of myself by going out for him and trying to herd a hooker into the freak show for him.

So it hadn't seemed like that bad an idea at the time, but the zombies had very nearly dealt me a final death, and Romero was not pleased at all.

After I had dealt with the ones responsible for the raising of the zombies and the infestation of the Hollywood sewers – the Sabbat – things had quieted down, but the gates were still buckled and dented from the abominations' assault and the ghoul was nowhere in sight.

No matter. I hadn't cared much for Romero anyway. I had a job to do here. I gave the rusted gates a solid kick and they swung inwards.

I stepped cautiously into the misty lawns and drew a breath, sniffing the air – something I hardly ever did anymore since I did not need to. The air was stale and dank, and I could tell, even though a sizeable portion of my nasal integration was dead, that this was not the particular fragrance anyone would want to stand for long.

Squaring my shoulders, I set off down the dirt path to the crypt I knew lay on the far side of the graveyard hill. I felt something splatter on my shoulder and looked up to feel raindrops on my face. Great. Rain. Just what I needed right now. Picking up the pace, I sprinted over to the stone doors of the imposing crypt below.

The old mausoleum looked like something out of a horror movie. The structure was tall and imposing with stone carvings artfully worked into the pillars surrounding the main wall. The front door was made of stone, and a normal human would have difficulty moving it. But being far from normal I had no problem at all ramming through it into the dusty hall beyond.

Rows upon rows of carved niches lay before me, bearing the names of the dead ones within. It was a hall of whispers. Wraiths I knew truly existed chattered from all the corners at my intrusion into their place of rest. Not one of them recognized me, as ghosts tended to retain only the simplest of consciousness in their drifting. They were of course easy to manipulate because of this, yet most Kindred did not bother with them because of their limited abilities and confusion. Still, I had encountered one powerful ghost in my time…

Maybe they could help me now if I was lucky.

"Hello…" I called softly into the gloom. The whispers stopped, and I was aware every wraith in the place was watching and waiting. "Hello…I'm lost. Can you help me please?"

Nothing.

"I'm looking for the false one…" I said quietly. "Do you know where it is?"

Nothing again. I cleared my throat.

"I want to go home…" I said more quietly still, preying upon what I guessed was the soft spot of every ghost. "Do you know what it's like to want to go home?"

Suddenly, the ghosts were whispering so loudly and frantically in comparison to their earlier silence that it sounded deafening. And then, sure enough, an insubstantial, stark white hand formed in the darkness and pointed down the hallway to my right.

I nodded. "Thank you." I said as the hand faded back into the darkness.

Turning down the hallway, I felt the ghosts lose interest in me and focus their attention back on their self-pity. They weren't bad, just insane. Reaching the large antechamber I remembered, I pushed aside the gate with a light clank and entered, my footsteps echoing hollowly in the darkness.

I narrowed my eyes to focus on the separate niches in the walls, before I leaned up against the closest and began to tap on them, listening with my ear against the stone.

After a couple of minutes of fruitless tapping and _thumm_ing, I at last heard a hollow _clack_ behind the niche I tapped on in the bottom right row. Here it was.

I moved my hand gingerly over the stone carvings around the niche, feeling for a tiny recess that held the button, until I at last felt my fingertips brush over a small depression in the stone. Reaching in with my finger, I pushed the button and heard a tiny _click_.

The stone tablet pulled back into the wall and shifted to one side to reveal a narrow crawl space. It was here, from this door, that I had exited the haven below the last time I was in Hollywood. I knew what lay beyond, and I wasn't too happy about having to go down. But I needed the guidance of the Nosferatu primogen, Gary Golden.

I had sought him out before under the instructions of LaCroix, and the intervention of the Sabbat in Hollywood led me to him. A Tzimisce elder had holed up the Nosferatu in their warrens beneath the city, and I had followed his lackeys down to find them. I had exited the warrens through the tunnel I now crawled down through. It was dark and foreboding, and no doubt covered in slime and moss from the dripping water. I was clearly going to arrive in Gary's chambers looking a little worse for wear.

Finally, I squeezed through the last opening in the tunnel and emerged before the patterned door to Gary's Elysium. If I knew the old fox, he would be waiting for me inside by now. Nothing moved unchecked by Gary in this city, and I hoped that he would be in a telling mood when I brought the subject around to Beckett.

I pushed the doors open, and, sure enough, there was Gary, waiting for me, but not alone...

The old Noss looked no different from the first time I had seen him, decked out in an old, dirty, moth-eaten tuxedo with blue skin and long claws gracing his fingers. But standing next to him and talking urgently was a vampire I did not recognize. A Ventrue I guessed, from his smart clothing and blond hair. There was another, a human, next to him. A young Asian woman dressed in pants, tank top, and jacket with short, burgundy hair that came down to her neck.

As I stepped gingerly into Gary's haven, he turned and glared at me irritably.

"About time you got here, boss. I've had half the city shouting in my ear for me to find you!"

Somewhat happy that I was getting my own back against the old monster for all the irritation he had given me before, I simply shrugged and smiled at him. "We all pay the price for being famous, old one. And who are your friends here?"

The Ventrue narrowed his eyes at me. "You are Trung Anh the Toreador?"

"That depends. Who wants to know?" I answered him in an equally unfriendly fashion.

"My name's Alexander. Strauss sent me to find you. He orders you to go at once to Venture Tower downtown and explain all this."

"You can tell Strauss that I'm not interested in answering to the Camarilla anymore. Tell him to go to Nines Rodriguez for an explanation." I snapped.

"Rodriguez already explained you were framed. But what in the name of Caine were you thinking?! You slaughtered half of the Ventrue clan on your way up to LaCroix!" Alexander looked very angry, most likely because of said bloodshed against his clan. It was true that a great number of Camarilla Ventrue had attacked me in my revenge trip to Venture Tower, and I had dusted all those who did.

"They weren't exactly ready to sit down and talk, Ventrue..." I said to him quietly. "If I hadn't killed them first, they would've…"

"Yo, boss! Leave the spats till later, will you?" Gary interrupted, frowning. "Alexander, tell Strauss that I'll make sure Trung Anh answers up eventually. That should be enough for now…"

I frowned at him. He ignored me.

Alexander frowned too, before nodding curtly and walking over to the door. He turned and looked at me.

"I'll be waiting outside this filthy hole."

_Slam!_ He was gone.

"Tut tut. Ventrue seem to forget their manners often these days…" Gary muttered after hearing him spite his home. "As for you, boss, it seems that Ikomi here has something to tell you…" He gestured to the human next to him, who was glaring at me.

Why did everyone want to kill me?

I glanced at her and then walked over to Gary. "I don't have time now, Gary. I need your help. I've got to find…"

"Kindred!" The human called Ikomi said sharply.

I turned again and glared at the girl. "What is it that's so blasted important, human?!" I spat.

"You have performed an unforgivable crime against us! You should consider yourself lucky we haven't killed you yet." She said angrily. "The Kuei-jin Mandarinate will want your head for this if you don't listen…"

I stared at her, and then I rolled back my head and laughed. "You're in over your head, girl. You're no Kuei-jin!"

"Actually, boss…" Gary muttered. "She is…kind of."

I stared at him. He shrugged.

"Seems the Kuei-jin were as surprised as you were to find a giant squid in the Chinatown Temple…"

"What?" I cast my mind back to when I had fought Ming Xiao beneath Chinatown. She had transformed into a large squid-like war form before I had killed her. The girl called Ikomi spoke again.

"While one dharma of Kuei-jin strength grants that ability, Ming Xiao did not follow that path. She should not have been able to transform into that creature…" Ikomi looked angry, but not at me, as though she believed that she had done something humiliating and was ticked off at the world. "When we investigated and drained the body, it revealed another one. A traitor…"

I stared at her. "What are you saying, girl?"

Gary answered me. "Seems that the thing you killed in Chinatown wasn't the real Ming Xiao, boss."

I felt a knot tighten in my stomach. Ming Xiao was still alive?! Then I still had a score to settle with her and I would be in danger for as long as she was alive.

Gary held up his hand as he saw me twitch. "Ah-ah, boss. We said the Kuei-jin were as surprised as you! That means they were deceived too. For all we know, boss, so was LaCroix…and you may never have even met the real Ming Xiao."

I stared at him for a moment, and then my eyes unfocused. I was thinking hard. Was there anything I had seen at all? Any way of knowing if the Ming Xiao I had killed was any different from the one I had met during my search for the sarcophagus? Then again, if the Kuei-jin hadn't noticed anything wrong, then it made sense that I wouldn't have a clue either.

The girl named Ikomi glared at me icily and said. "The creature you destroyed was a foul abomination, Kindred, even more so than your own cursed brethren. It was an _akuma_. A Kuei-jin that chose to pledge itself to the service of the demons of _Yomi_, the underworld. It somehow managed to remove and replace our leader, Ming Xiao, and continue her work without any of us noticing any difference. That _akuma_ was slippery, but in the end, its tricks fell away…"

"Thanks to me!" I interrupted her sharply. "I did the Kuei-jin a favor, so please kindly tell your masters to leave me alone in return! Nice talking to you!" I turned away, but Ikomi spoke up again.

"No, Kindred! You may have revealed the _akuma _to us, but that does not make up for your murder of a score of Kuei-jin. Many of those lost souls will never fulfill their _karma_ now, and it is all your fault! You should consider yourself lucky I have not killed you yet!"

Irritated at this Kuei-jin wannabe's pretentiousness, I bared my fangs at her and snarled, advancing on her menacingly. "Foolishness, human! You are not a Kuei-jin, and didn't you ever learn not to pretend to be something you're not?! You won't even know who you are when I'm finished with you!"

I darted towards her, fangs bared in anticipation of feeding and leaving her insensate for the rest of my little visit, but unfortunately, that was not to be…

She darted backwards with more speed than any normal human could ever hope to muster, and spun around sharply, making me cop a smash against my jaw in an impressively-pulled backswing kick.

That kick might've seriously injured a normal person, but I merely stumbled slightly and stopped in my tracks, glaring irritably.

"Okay…so you're not human either. What are you then?" I muttered, disgruntled, as she crossed her arms and smirked in triumph.

"You don't need to know that, Kindred! It's enough that you know I speak for the Kuei-jin Mandarinate now-"

"She's a dhampir, boss…" Gary interrupted her. "The child of a Kuei-jin and a human. Sort of like a ghoul on steroids."

Ikomi glared at him. "Compare me not to one of your miserable human slaves, Nosferatu! My father assures me-"

"Shut up or get to the point!" I cut her off that time. "What do the Kuei-jin want from me?"

I knew by then that all vampires, Kindred or otherwise, sent their messengers only to ask for something; if they wanted me dead they would attack in full force.

Ikomi cleared her throat as if she suddenly realized what a windbag she was being. "You are to come to Chinatown to discuss your case with my father, Yue Hin. If you refuse, we Kuei-jin will kill you. If you do as we say, perhaps you will have the chance to atone for your crimes against us, Kindred."

I rolled my eyes. How long was it going to be before I could free myself entirely from the whims of others? I couldn't trust anyone in the afterlife, and definitely least of all the Kuei-jin. They despised the Kindred in a similar fashion as humans despise vermin, and I knew I would certainly never be treated with any honesty or respect from them.

I shook my head at Ikomi. "No. I don't trust you to play fair…"

Ikomi's eyes blazed, and it was clear she was going to start squealing again when Gary cut her off by waving a clawed hand in her face. "Leave it, dhampir! I'll talk with him and see what I can do. Go outside and wait with the other one."

Her voice tightened like she was choking on a dozen arguments she wanted to spew at once. "You don't command me, leech!"

"But I command this Elysium…" Gary retorted calmly. "And if you speak to me like that again, I'll spill your foul guts to feed the worms, dhampir. Get outside and wait! I'll talk some sense into this fledgling here."

Ikomi opened her mouth…and then shut it abruptly and turned to storm out the door.

"Why do you put up with this?" I asked Gary rudely as Ikomi slammed the door shut.

He sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose in irritation. "Because they'll become an even bigger nuisance if I don't, boss. Anyway, you have a fair few people to answer to, I think…"

"No, Gary!" I said sharply. "I'm tired of running errands for lazy honchos! I just need some information…"

Gary sighed again. "You said it yourself, boss: we all pay the price for being famous. And what you did downtown certainly did that! Pretty soon, every Kindred elder on the west coast is going to be looking for you and trying to woo, con, force, or blackmail you in with their own lot! I'd say until you have enough to dig out your own fort, you're pretty much going to be everyone's favorite errand boy, boss!"

I glared at him. "Well, it doesn't matter. I'm leaving soon anyway. Gary, I need to find someone…"

"Oh no, boss. You've got to clean up this mess first! Until then, I'm not telling you anything!" Gary sounded annoyed. "Both the Camarilla and the Kuei-jin want you to state your case, and if you ever want to get out of here alive, you're going to have to humor them. You won't last a night out there with the whole city after you…"

I waved my hand dismissively, raising my voice along with him. "Been there, done that, Gary!" He smirked at me as I crossed my arms and growled. "This isn't fair…"

"No-one ever said unlife was fair, boss…but look at it this way…if you humor all these whining, puffed-up, self important capes, they'll be out of your way at least, and you can press on with your own goals as you wish. After all, they don't bother to chaperone you, do they?" Gary grinned. "Except my own little girlie, who made sure you were a good boy and toed the line in your search through Chinatown…"

"Don't you ever stop scheming, old one?" I asked him half-heartedly as he chuckled.

"Certainly not, boss! Where's the fun in that? Scheming is what we Nosferatu do best…something you pretty Toreador can never understand…"

I sat down on a chair. "Save it. Alright, I'll go out there and deal with the Camarilla and the Kuei-jin, but I'm not doing anything for those slavering monsters anymore. I want some information _now_…please."

Gary grinned. "I thought I'd never…er…live to see the day you used the magic word, boss. How can I refuse such a diplomatic entreaty? What would you like to know?"

I sighed. "I need to find Beckett…"

Gary actually looked startled. "Of all the…you know, boss, you've actually just given me something that might be a challenge. Beckett just slips in and slips out like water between your fingers…"

I hung my head and ran my fingers through my hair with one gloved hand. "So you can't find him?"

"Of course I can, boss. It might take a night or two, but I can find out where he went. Why are you following _him _of all people, boss?"

I shook my head. "A historian would be useful for what I have in mind…"

Gary stared at me before he caught on, and then he actually laughed. Not his ghastly little chuckle, but a real, full laugh this time. Magnified beyond his guttural whisper, I realized that Gary's voice was actually quite rich.

"Oh! So that's it, is it?! You're after the cure! Well, congratulations, boss! You're only undertaking the quest which, oh, what was it, every single fledgling has undertaken before in their life! Ha ha ha!!!"

I glared at him as he stopped laughing and smirked at me again. "You're in over your head, boss. Don't you think that if there was such a thing, older and more powerful Kindred would've already found it long ago?"

I shrugged. "Perhaps. But does that mean we should stop trying?"

Gary nodded. "Exactly that, boss. If our curse came from God and His angels, then only He could take it away."

"Not everyone believes in that sort of thing, Gary…"

"But you do, don't you, boss?"

"…" I didn't answer him because it wouldn't have made any difference.

Despite my nature, I still wore a small steel cross on a cord around my neck, set with a sapphire in its center. I had tried to use my cursed existence to help people. Perhaps I could redeem myself in the eyes of God by using my dark power for the benefit of humanity and vampire alike…or so I had felt at the beginning. I was beginning to think it was all a lost cause.

From what I had seen as a creature of the night, I wondered just why the Sabbat bothered. Given time, the humans were bound to wipe themselves out, and the Camarilla was mired with treachery and corruption and likely would not live out the next few years, though it had existed, from what I had been told, for the last several hundred years.

I looked up again at Gary, who was watching my wool-gathering patiently. I repeated my request. "Please find out where Beckett went…"

Gary nodded. "Okay, boss. I did promise you a favor if you needed it. Take this phone." Gary motioned to the small cell phone sitting on his table. "I had it ready for you when you got here. Just wait for my call."

I nodded, slipping the phone into a coat pocket. "I guess I'd better go see what Strauss wants…"

Gary didn't answer. He just faded into thin air right before my eyes. I sighed and stood up.

Now that one old face was gone, there was another one to attend to. A blue, bespectacled face that never showed any emotion at all.

* * *

Author: And that's Chapter 2. Expect another one sooner or later. Please R&R. 


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